A win! A road win! A game in which the Union never looked like they were going to lose! These are things Union fans have not seen in a long, long time.

There is, of course, important context here that smothers any trace of positivity like a wet blanket. Montreal is at least as hapless as the Union are this season. Maybe beating them means the Impact are more hapless, but that’s about the best interpretation of this result possible.

With that said, there were positives to take away from this game. On the off chance the Union learn from what worked (and what didn’t work) in this game, it could be the slump-buster this team desperately needs. And if nothing else, it’s going to be a much more enjoyable (commercial) flight back to Philadelphia with three points secured.

Reminder about ratings: All players start at a score of five, which is assumed to be an “average” performance. Points are then added or subtracted from there.

Player Ratings

Andre Blake — 6

As always the Jamaican international was reliable in goal. None of his saves were particularly extraordinary, but he made every single one he needed to. And that’s what counts.

Keegan Rosenberry — 5

A quiet game from the veteran (?) right back, but not a bad one. He seemed to bear most of the responsibility for keeping noted Union-buster Ignacio Piatti out of the game, and for the most part did a fine job of it.

Mark McKenzie — 5

McKenzie never really stood out, but for a rookie center back that’s probably a good thing. He did his job, shut down Piatti and Anthony Jackson-Hamel a few times, and didn’t make any real obvious mistakes. What more could you want from a rookie center back in his second game?

Auston Trusty — 7

An exceptional game from the Union homegrown. His ability to pick out the offense’s next pass before they made it would be impressive from a player twice his age, and paired with excellent speed made him a key part of shutting down numerous Montreal drives. He would have scored higher too, were it not for a handful of sloppy and dangerous passes.

Raymon Gaddis — 7

Well it looks like we’ll have to retire the “Gaddis contributes nothing offensively” trope. A shot on goal, and an assist? 2018 is crazy.

Alejandro Bedoya — 5

Not a bad game from the Union captain by any means, but so much of it came down to luck. He was lucky not to get called for taking down Piatti in the box during the fifth minute, and he was unlucky to miss his shot in the 28th minute. But Bedoya is a good enough player that luck shouldn’t play such a major role in how he performs in a game.

Haris Medunjanin — 4

If it wasn’t for the goal, it would have been lower. The Bosnian was largely invisible for much of the game, and when he did have an impact it wasn’t particularly positive. His newfound penchant for short passes, while not responsible for Burke’s red card, did lead to the situation that required the Jamaican’s tackle.

Borek Dockal — 5

He’s working much harder than he has for the Union in the past. Whether it was a “why not try” shot in the first minute, or trying to make something out of nothing in the 46th, Dockal is at least trying. Even if it’s not quite working yet.

Marcus Epps — 5

The sophomore didn’t have a bad game, but didn’t exactly impress either. He was out there working for it, and earned the Union at least two corners. But one of those corners was a poorly taken shot that would have been a goal kick before it would have been an actual goal.

Fafa Picault — 4

Another player who’s clearly trying, but Picault needs to be trying something else as well. His speed is an obvious threat, and something the Montreal defense clearly had to work to contain. But all too often he’s burn into the offensive third, only to find himself isolated with no shot and no one to pass to. Maybe other Union players should be making more supporting runs, but Picault needs to recognize when and where they will end up before he turns on the afterburners. His speed did force the Impact into a sending off.

Cory Burke — 6

Even before the red card, the game was far from perfect for the Jamaican international. He underestimated his opposition more than once, and more than once it lead to the Union losing the ball. But his goal instincts are right on track, and very quickly the Impact had to adapt their defensive play to account for him. Hopefully he gets more opportunity to prove himself, once he gets back from his suspension of course.

Substitutes

Warren Creavalle – 6 (for Dockal in the 63rd)

Not the change I wanted to see, but not a bad one either. He came on after the Burke red card (but before the Daniel Lovitz one), so a defensive move when down a man but winning the game is obviously the right choice. Once Lovitz got DOGSO’ed out of the game and the teams were evenly matched, he made contributions to the offense as well. A good choice by head coach Jim Curtin, and a good performance by Creavalle.

David Accam – 5 (for Epps in the 74th)

Short minutes for the Ghanaian. Though in his limited opportunity, he did manage to force the Montreal defense to adjust to him, and of course got the assist on Medunjanin’s goal. If this is how he breaks out of the funk he’s been playing in, that’s just fine.

Geiger Counter

Kevin Stott — 6

He didn’t get anything wrong, and that’s pretty good in a league where this happened. If there’s any criticism it’s that MLS’ most experienced referee should have handed out more cards in the first half of the game, and fewer in the second.

Man of the Match — Auston Trusty

Even if Cory Burke would have stayed in the game, the young center back would have beat him for Man of the Match honors. He’s got the physical talents to be a great player in this (or any league) and is clearly well on his way to having the smarts to match.

Author: Jim O'Leary
Jim started writing for PSP around the same time the Union announced they were looking to hire a Chief Tattoo Officer. Those two facts probably aren't related, but what if they were? He's on twitter @thejimoleary, but be warned it's only about 60% soccer.

15 Comments

This time a lot of the ratings are a little low. Just looking at the numbers, I would assume a 1-1 draw on the road rather than the team getting their first road win in a year and generally being the better team.
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Rosenberry/McKenzie need more credit for shutting down Piatti.
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Picault deserves credit for drawing the red card as well as for frustrating Montreal at the end which led to the turnover at the end leading to the second goal.

Rosenberry/McKenzie definitely need to be bumped up. Making Piatti invisible is a very tough thing to do. Montreal doesn’t do defense, but they can do attack. The fact that we kept that damn bell quiet needs more adulation.
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I also liked seeing Medunjanin get up a little further than normal. Much better than seeing him essentially play left-back during the Crew game – what was that all about? If they were trying to shut down Afful in that game it didn’t work.
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I think O’Leary’s numbers are pretty good overall. It was a relatively entertaining, but ugly road win. I’ll take it, it might be a while before we see another one – we have the Pink Cows, the Peaches, and Chivas 2.0 as our next three away games.

Burkes goal was well taken. I know it is a pretty normal soccer play, but considering all year we have seen CJ be a half step late to every ball, running to the near post when he should be going far post, etc – maybe it’s not so normal for our first choice striker.

No it isn’t. CJ has had much easier setups this year and hasn’t finished. Hoenstly, his heading is terrible. On that ball he’s too slow to react and doesn’t get to the spot of head it cleanly as he’s done all year. He’s a backup.

Agreed. Picault seems like an infuriating player to play with (mostly due to his poor decision-making in the box which seemed to annoy Burke), but he played really well on Sat.
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His work after Burke’s red card was instrumental in securing the win.

I wouldn’t argue with most of the ratings, but 4’s for Medujanin and Picault are way off base.

Medujanin may have underperformed this year, but this week was his best game all season. His passes were on target for a change. His goal was gravy on an already well-played match.

Picault also had a good game. Should be a 6 rating IMO. He kept the pressure on the Impact defense.

And yeah, I also agree with the others arguing for a bump up of McKenzie and Rosenberry. If you’re scaling down some ratings because of the poor quality of the opponent, then you should scale up for the guys defending their stud offensive player.

Kevin Stott’s rating should be lower. He missed 2 clear penalties in the first half (one for each team). He also let way too much go at times. He went from not calling any fouls, to handing out cards as if Christmas was the next day.

I actually think he got them right, although the one against the Union probably could have been a foul, albeit outside the box.
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The biggest question mark to me was that Bush should have seen a card after his hand ball outside the box.